Talk To Frank resources-for-family

What Is Talk To Frank?

Talk To Frank is an anti-drugs campaign in the United Kingdom that has been running for the longest time. But, have people quit drug abuse through this?

The drug education in the entire UK received a total turn around ten years back when the police Swat team ran into a rural kitchen somewhere in the UK. Grim warnings about how drugs could mess you up and genuine pleas to resist the pushers that were creeping around every playground were gone. A lighter, more humorous approach was used instead.

The first advert featured a boy calling the police snatch squad on his mother because she wanted to discuss drugs with him. There was also a new message Drugs are illegal. Talking about the isn't. So talk to Frank."

Frank Friendly Confidential Drug Advice

Thought up by promotion organization Mother, Frank was, indeed, the new name for the National Drugs Helpline. It was intended to be a put stock in "elder brother" assumes that youngsters could swing to for advice concerning illegal substances. Entirety from the ventures of Pablo, the canine medications mule, to a visit cycle a mind, distribution centre has been exhibited under the Frank name, making it a natural brand name among the country's youth.

Significantly, Frank was never found in the flesh, so would never be the objective of joke for wearing the wrong trainers or attempting to be "down with the children," says Justin Tindall, inventive director of ad organization Leo Burnett. Even the sham Frank videos on YouTube are moderately deferential. One more thing that distinguishes Frank from other government-funded campaigns is that nothing links the ad to the government in anyway whatsoever.

Teaching people about drugs is now approached in a different way, not like the days of Nancy Reagan in the UK and the cast of Grange Hill in the UK, who told us to "Just Say No" to drugs; it is evident this did not work.

Frank has set the standard, and now most adverts in Europe are using the same format to equip the youth with unbiased facts to help in making their choices. In places that have harsh penalties for being in possession, pictures/photos of prison cells and embarrassed parents remain common. For example, in Singapore, a recent campaign recently told young people, "You play, you pay."

Above the Influence is a campaign that mixes jokes and warning stories that the federal government has been using in the UK for a long time; it also offers positive alternatives to drugs. The focus of the campaign is to talk to the youth in a language they understand, like the one ad showing a group of "stoners" stranded on a coach. But the scare tactics is still prevalent in majority of the campaigns against drugs around the globe, especially the "descent into hell" which is drug inspired. A good example is a Canadian commercial that appeared recently and formed part of the DrugsNot4Me series in which a beautiful, self-assured young woman changes into a trembling, hollow-eyed skeleton because of "drugs".

Research that was done on a UK anti-drug campaign between 1999 and 2004 shows that describing the negative effects of abuse will often actually encourage young people "on the margins of society" to use drugs.

The opposition Conservative politicians were initially against Frank, simply because it pointed out the ups and downs of drug use, but it made giant strides.

An early online advertisement told people that cocaine made you feel on of the world.

Understanding the true information behind the message was very difficult. According to the then creative director of digital agency Profero, Matt Powell, who designed the ad, he was wrong in believing that a normal web user has an adequate attention span. Some might not have adhered around to the finish of the liveliness to get some answers concerning the negative impacts. However, the goal of the ad was to be upfront with young people about the effects of drugs so that Frank could establish some accountability.

According to the Home Office, 67% of younger people in a survey stated that they would ask Frank if they required advice on drugs. 225,892 calls were made to the Frank helpline and 3,341,777 visits to the site in 2011/12. It's confirmed, it contends, that the method works.

But, we don't have any proofs that people have quit drug consumption because of Frank, just as we don't have such evidence in cases of other media campaigns against drugs.

In the years since the campaign started, drug use in the UK is down by 9%; however, experts say this might be because marijuana use has declined, most like due to changing attitudes toward smoking tobacco.

What Is Frank?

FRANK is a state drug education services together settled by the by the Department of Health and Home Office of the British government in 2003. It's main aim is to inform young people about the dangers of alcohol and drugs, so as to bring down the rate of consumption of both legal and illegal drugs. It has run numerous media promotions on radio and the web.